


Simply Purrfect

by satu (turva_auto)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Veterinarians, Cat/Human Hybrids, Domestic Violence, Heterochromia Iridum, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kitten!nanaba, Magical Realism, Neko Nanaba, Nonbinary Character, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Veterinary Clinic, neko, neko hybrids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:54:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25529998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turva_auto/pseuds/satu
Summary: Nana just wants to come home please.
Relationships: Nanaba/Mike Zacharias
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	1. Up North

**Author's Note:**

  * For [minxiebutt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/minxiebutt/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Give Thanks Unto God](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17757443) by [eruriotica (minxiebutt)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/minxiebutt/pseuds/eruriotica). 



> This is still a work in progress, it's just touch and go as I try to figure out things. There won't be a set update shedule, since I'm only writing this as a coping mechanism right now, but I still wanted to show at least a sign that I'm still alive, trying to deal with my shit. So this story will be pretty self indulgent to say the least and also kind of a test. Also little heads up I'm mainly writing this one on my phone, so the editing and spacing might be weird and fucked.  
> The idea to this fic was inspired by the beautiful Minxiebutt and her story Give Thanks Unto God.  
> and this is Nana : 

During September Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada could be the sunniest piece of habor you could visit, but also a raining nightmare. This year however, eastern Canada was facing heavy rainfalls, though instead of maybe taking a walk down the pier, a tall blonde man in a starched white lab coat, stood bend over a steel table, wearing uncharacteristically purple gloves in contrast to his green scrub tunic, while he tended to his patient. 

It had taken him 28 years to get this far, but Mike Zacharias had never been anything but determined. He did his undergraduate studies at the OVC in Ontario and stayed on staff for his NAVLE afterwards, so he could obtain his doctor of veterinary medicine degree. 

He had considered moving to Montréal but the Université de Montréal, maintains strict French fluency requirements and his French left a lot to be desired. He learned some from his grandma, because her family was from Québec, but English was just so much easier to deal with. 

He could have gone off to the US after graduating, but instead moved back to Nova Scotia, where he had grown up and opened his own veterinarian clinic. He liked the harbour and being close to the ocean, no matter if it meant rainy days like today, or sunny sweltering summer heat. 

It had taken him an additional 4 years to grow into a small practice, with 2 vet assistants, a tech and another doctor on staff, but he had managed to make a name for himself, with only 34 years of age.

Mike was tending to a young dalmatian, wagging it’s tail and seemingly doing everything possible to not sit still, on the steel table, to allow a check up on his ears. Even while towering over the dog, with his impressive 6ft 5in in height, it took him a bit of coaxing to get a clear view, if only for three seconds. But it was long enough to determine nothing out of the ordinary was going on.  
  
"Mh, everything’s fine up here. He‘s active, eye‘s, ears, reflexes, all ordinary for a healthy pup. He still has his puppy teeth, which is good, but don't be surprised they should be falling out soon. Giving him something to chew on, for example dried cow ears, will help that along, so his adult teeth can come in all nice and sharp. Yeah that's right buddy." Mike petted the dalmatian with a soft smile, which earned him a glove full of puppy slobber.

"Oh, alright. I was afraid he was hurting." The owner, a young woman in her early twenties, seemed relieved to know, it wasn't anything bad, while her dog gave another howl. "Thank you very much, Dr. Zacharias." her smile was bright and almost a little flirty, as she moved to lift her puppy off the table, but he was faster. Mike gently placed the small dotted bundle of energy back on the Medical-grade sheet vinyl floor and in seconds the puppy was jumping around her legs.  
"No problem, and please call me Mike. My assistant has already left for tonight, so if you don't mind, we could take care of the payment." He pulled his gloves off and threw them into the trash can, before leading the way to their small reception up front. He charged her with the 150$ for the checkup, before he let her out of the clinic, closing up for the night.

He secured the front, dimmed the lights and took the cash back to the safe in his office, deciding to do some more paperwork, before he would call it quits. It was already half past seven, since his last patient had come in shortly before actual closing time, but he never denied a pet care.

Mike had always liked animals, especially dogs. He practically grew up with them and always had a special bond with them. Ever since he was a little boy, he had wished to help all animals, though as the last one of their family dogs he grew up with died, just as he was about to pick a career, it came naturally to study veterinary medicine. But he also held a specific interest for hybrids, even if they were nearly extinct. His classes had barely touched on the subject in depth, apart from the tell tale signs and restrictions released by the government, which held him accountable to report any sighting of a wild hybrid to the state. The laws made owning hybrids without papers illegal, to stop the black market sales and to keep a lid on the population. It was necessary given their history, they had nearly overtaken the general public a few decades ago, almost ending the existence of normal animals, that were needed for produce and other reasons and it all blew up into a genocide of huge proportions. 

Not many were spared and those who survived, ended up like exotic cattle, locked into golden cages. 

The history class had been the worst of all of his classes, awakening twisted feelings and doubts in his mind, as he began to question his own fascination with the species. 

He had been trained to always check the papers extensively. All owned hybrids had to be microchipped and registered, their papers were stamped and they had to be neutered. But he had never met a hybrid so far, because the small remaining population was kept as pets by the high society.

He sighed and collected his papers to put them aside, he could think about sorting out next week's operations on Monday, since they were closed for business on mondays. 

Today was Friday, that meant he had his weekend ahead of him, because his colleague Erwin would be on emergency call.

Sadly, he would rather stay at the clinic and care for the inpatient dogs, but his assistant had bullied him into staying home and relaxing for once. He hadn't hired Erwin solely for the demand and influx of patients and their vet assistants would cover most of the weekend nursing, without a complaint.  
  
The ashy blonde stood and pulled off his lab coat, disposing it into the hamper to be dealt with by the assistants, only to wash his hands thoroughly, yet again and put on his leather jacket. 

As he exited through the backdoor and activated the alarm system, he was greeted with a great downpour and he hoped that his last patient had arrived with a car, as he opened his umbrella. Mike didn’t live far from the clinic, one of the reasons he'd chosen the small building. He could easily cross the distance by foot within a comfortable fifteen minutes time, when he didn’t stop at the corner store to pick up some snacks. However he decided tomorrow was as good a day as any to take the bigger trip to the Atlantic superstore, to load up on groceries.

They weren’t known to have the best of customer service, but at least he would get most of his shopping done in one go. He would have prefered the smaller stores, he just wasn’t a fan of shop hopping, it was too time consuming.

  
  


Nanaba had been wandering the streets of the small suburb for some weeks already, ever since autumn was turning into winter and the temperatures kept dropping, she had been looking for shelter. She vaguely remembered hitching a ride on a truck in Pittsburgh, that was headed god knows where. She had slept for most of the journey from pure exhaustion, until they had reached their unload station, somewhere up north and the trucker had kicked her off, in a fit of screaming and curses. 

Because, "How dare a filthy cat ride along unnoticed, in his load of fresh groceries, that was against all disease control protocols." The fat guy had raged. Nanaba had made a run for it, as soon as the old bastard had stopped kicking out at her, with his heavy steel toe work boots. But ever since, her hint paw had been hurting like a bitch, making her hips ache, with every step she took. 

The only good thing was, she had left a good scratch in those pretentious denim jeans. 

Circling through some trash cans for leftover food had tilted her over, but the farther she got away from the busy city center, the more she was starving. Skyscrapers gave way to the highway of speeding cars, getting her almost run over, as she had passed, and the scenery had changed to small picket fenced single homes, where the rich people secured their trash cans, as if they were housing gold, instead of waste. 

Cracking some locks, wouldn't be a hardship, but getting caught red handed would. 

She couldn't risk changing into her human form around strangers. Ever since the new laws passed congress, she was in danger of getting shipped off to some laboratory. 

A sad meow escaped her, as she recalled her last owner. 

Gelgar had been a piece of shit, a piece of work even, but at least she had belonged somewhere, no matter how bad she had been treated. It never occurred to her that the old fart would actually try to sell her for booze. It had never been a thing Nanaba considered possible, but the moment it happened, she had made a run for it. 

The neko hybrid was shivering in the pelting rain, knocking over a cardboard box, in the parking lot of some building, before trying to crawl under it. It proved to be difficult, because while she was small, not bigger than a 10 week old kitten, the leftover box was even smaller. This had been a bad choice, but she was so tired, she just wanted to curl up and pass out by now. 

Nanaba knew, the longer she had to stay outside on the streets, the smaller she would get and her chances of survival in the wild weren't great, considering her race was still haunted. Her neko form would change alongside her human body, until she would get stuck in either form, because her energy levels were too depleted to change. Walking long distances had become more troublesome already, her paws were hurting, along with the sustained injury, her pale nose was runny from the gusts of wind and her eyes teary from the cold. Gelgar had always made fun of her mismatched eyes, one being indigo blue and the other a shimmering gold.

She didn't know, how much longer she could keep going like this. Purring to comfort herself at least helped a bit, as she curled up as tightly as possible, making more noise than was safe at this point of night, but praying the rain and wind would mask the sound of her purrs.


	2. Soundless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas everybody and welcome back to my little side story. I know it's been ages and it takes forever, but the bigger projects just keep eating me up. Please enjoy some fluffy Mike x Nana stuff for as long as I manage to keep this story fluffy *evil laugh*. I also needed some time to research some more and make up my mind about the magical part of the hybrids, as well as to find suitable explanations to the universe I was creating. If you live in Helifax I am sorry for writing some stuff about your city that might not be the truth, I'm just orientating myself via google and trying to make it fit in with my story as best as possible. I've never even been to Canada, since it is accross the big pond. Have fun reading, and maybe let me know in the comments how you'd like it, or ask away if something didn't make sense.

The veterinarian rounded the corner to the parking lot, that marked half of the way home in Convoy Place, almost stumbling over an abandoned cardboard box that was probably left from the garbage of the Tim Horton's, right at the side. His footing was uneven for a few steps, as he came to an abrupt halt, but managed not to bash his face in on the tarmac beneath his Doc Martens.

Standing still now, he could hear a kind of soft rumbling over the sound of the pouring rain and he spotted a small glimpse of orange fuzz under the wet cardboard box.    
Mike didn’t know what animal he would be facing, maybe a wild fox, but the vet in him just couldn't move on and act as if he hadn't seen a thing. No animal deserved to be left alone in this downpour and maybe it was one of the missing ones, for all he knew. Every other week some scouts girl or an overly concerned mom would show up in his clinic with a stack of printed out flyers, asking to drop them off, because their beloved pet had gone missing. 

But as he approached the cardboard box, the rumbling intensified, until he realized it sounded more like a purr. The orange fur belonged to a small but obviously abandoned baby kitten, seemingly trying to find a place to keep dry, under the harsh spray of water. There was no mother cat in sight, as he carefully lifted one edge of the cardboard to sneak a peek at the little inhabitant.   
“Oh, hey little one.” He said lowly, as he tapped the cardboard box gently and readied himself for nails aggressively digging into his skin in retaliation. Mike was never, as good with cats, as he was with dogs, but now that he found this little kitten, he just couldn’t let it freeze to death. 

The tap to the box echoed like a bomb gone off in Nana's ears and she froze for a moment. 

Well shit, the voice sounded friendly, but that was possibly just a ruse. Gelgar's voice had been friendly too, when he had first gotten her, as a birthday gift from his parents, that lasted until his first drink and that was that. She was merrily meant as a pet in a golden cage to flaunt wealth, a status symbol, but for Gelgar she was just a tool for his petty frustrations.

Nanaba swished her tail, trying even more now to get fully into the box to hide away, even if it was fruitless, her nose was already jammed against the wet cardboard of the backside. 

The moment a big hand made a grab for her rear end, she howled, claws coming out, struggling as best as possible, with the pain flashing a blinding white blank in front of her eyes, rendering her almost useless. 

She couldn't see, nor reach the offending hand, hissing and meowing in distress, probably alerting half the block to her impending demise. There just wasn't enough room to get away.

Why did she crawl into that fucking box again? 

She couldn't find it in herself to care about the rain anymore, all her alarm bells were going off, as the hands around her small body shifted, taking the pressure off her injury and enabling her to drive one clawed paw, into whatever she could reach. 

"Ouch, dear lord. You are a feisty one." The voice rumbled again, scaring her even more. She felt like her heart would give out any minute now from fear alone, considering it was beating a panicked staccato against her ribcage. Fight or flight reducing the little neko hybrid to her uttermost primal instincts.

The Veterinarian cursed lightly under his breath, umbrella forgotten at his feet, one foot pinning it down so the wind wouldn't swap it away and carefully juggling the kitten from hand to hand without dropping it, to avoid any deeper scratches.   
"Ouch, okay, sorry I didn't know you were injured. Gosh, I'm sorry." Mike apologized to the ball of fur clawing into his skin viciously and wiggling to get away. He had to tighten his grip on the kitten's middle for a moment, while he opened the zipper of his jacket one handed, before he gently pressed the upper body of the cat to his chest, in hopes that would calm the injured animal down from the frustrating howls and hisses. The tiny claws dug into the fabric of his soft Henley, prickling his skin underneath, as he zipped his jacket back up to help the kitten heat back up and to get it to stop clawing at him by rendering it a little immobilized.

"Hey, listen, I'm just trying to help okay, little boy?" Mike rumbled, supporting the small bundle with one arm across his stomach from slipping right through. He was just assuming the cat's gender, but given that 80% of the orange tabbies were male, it would be a far chance that he was off with his assumption. 

As he bent down to pick up his umbrella he realised. 'Why am I even talking to him? It's not like he’s gonna understand me and going to apologize for almost clawing my eyes out. I'm growing soft with age.' He chuckled and turned on his heel, to speed walk back to the clinic, he was already drenched anyway and the small fur bundle was meowing protestingly in the safety of his leather jacket.

As he arrived back, disarming the alarm system and unlocking the backdoor to let himself inside, he didn't dare to set the kitten down even once, before he had closed all the doors of one of his treatment rooms in an attempt to avoid the kitten from running off and possibly hurting itself even more.

  
"Okay, I bet you're hungry and thirsty." Mike said, as he slowly put the kitten down on the linoleum flooring. The steel table would have been too cold, since it needed a moment to warm up a little. He had sat a freshly cleaned bowl filled with slightly warm water and another with a few dry chewies between himself and the cat with the adorable mismatched eyes, before taking a rather awkward seat on the floor too. It was a bit of a hardship to fold his long legs in as he got settled, but he eventually managed, while he waited and observed his little fur companion. This way it would be easier to tell how heavy the sustained injury was, without touching and physically checking it over just yet. The orange tabby eyed him with vengeance as it hissed, claws scratching warningly at the floor with his fur puffing up to appear even bigger and more dangerous.

Nana had hoped she got a good scratch in, but the moment she had been pressed up against the firm chest with the calm heartbeat, she had surrendered to whatever would happen, finding herself in a white top tiled room, with a bowl of water, lots of stainless steel and the giant of a man, who had picked her up. She growled at the guy, but it sounded pathetic to her own ears. The first thing she did notice, after uncurling from the ball she had rolled herself into, is the warmth. Despite the scary look of her surroundings, it's dry and lovely toasty in here. She still wants to run, but she doesn't dare move, afraid the pain might flair up again. 

The neko hybrid certainly wasn't expecting this however. She licked her free paw, hiding most of her face in the process. She doesn't want the stranger's blood on herself, but she also wants some of the water. The bowl seems way too far away, but she tries regardless, desperate to wet her parched throat from meowing up a storm. Her hint paw is forcing her to meow in pain pitifully, as she drags herself up to quench her thirst, keeping the guy in her peripheral. 

Is he a scientist? Is this a lab?

The idea of ending up in a laboratory after trying to stay safe and not getting herself killed, sends chills up Nana's skin. She meows almost in question, waiting for the big dirty blonde to make a move and pull out some syringes and drugs. 

What if the water was poisoned? The intrusive thoughts made the neko retch up most of the water, her brain trying to save herself. Fuck her life, nothing was save anymore.

She wasn’t microchipped, because Gelgar had never cared, after his parents had handed Nanaba over. She was a wild neko, not even neutered and the risk of being put out of her misery were sky high, considering she was in whatever kind of place that was with Mr. white fluffy robe. But would it be that much worse? Considering Gelgar had tried to sell her for more booze, after his parents had cut him off from his allowance, since he didn’t get a move on with his life.

She looked up at the big giant blonde questionly as she meowed, unsure how to communicate with him. He emitted a kind of save vibe, but she was still way too scared to just go and trust a stranger. What if he noticed how she changed in appearance and growth? Or what if she switched in the middle of the night, that would sure raise some questions? Even if she was currently way too weak to switch into her hybrid form and almost stuck in her pet form, just from all the neglect Gelgar and her escape had put her through. The malnutrition was adding to her kitten status but it wasn’t all that. 

Every doctor and neko owner was aware that when nekos were nurtured and cared for they would bloom. In order to tame them, it was important to keep in mind that neglected and touch starved nekos wouldn’t be able to feed off the affection, which resulted in them withering away and being easy to boss around to their owners' needs. Since it took a lot of energy for a hybrid to switch in between forms, a good cared neko would have no issues switching between their hybrid human and their pet form. However a neglected neko would simply get stuck in their pet form, as if they had run out of magical fairy dust, which in turn would make them easier targets, since they couldn’t defend themselves much.

Mike sighed at the view of the kitten throwing up the water. „Here, look!“ He dipped one finger into the bowl and licked the water droplets off. „See. Nothing wrong with it. You are kind of an odd duck aren't you? I'm not good with cats, but I promise it's just water." He murmurs, as if he could read her mind, while he reached for some gloves trying to appear casual. He was aware of the cat's stare, cats are intelligent animals after all. 

"Will you let me look at your paw?" Mike inquired softly, reaching out slowly and being greeted by a hiss and Nana curling up again, glaring at him from behind her swishing tail, that on closer inspection seemed to be missing a bit of the tip, as if it had gotten cut off at some point.

He didn’t want to spook the cat with any fast movements as he stood up, an idea already forming in his head on how he could get the kitten to cooperate without manhandling the poor fluffball. He slowly walked backwards towards the door, before exiting the room swiftly and closing the door. 

The vet made his way to the inpatient kennels at the back of the clinic, where they kept their overnight guests, greeting the night shift nurse on duty with a soft smile. She didn’t even question, why he was still around, just rolled her eyes at him fondly. 


End file.
